Arthur Percival

Arthur Percival (26 December 1887-31 January 1966) was a Lieutenant-General of the British Army during World War II, best known for his surrender to Japan at the Battle of Singapore on 15 February 1942.

Biography
Arthur Percival was born on 26 December 1887 in Aspenden, Hertfordshire, England. Percival joined the British Army on the first day of World War I, and he was made Second Lieutenant after leaving training. Percival served at the Battle of the Somme (including the Capture of Schwaben Redoubt) and the Spring Offensive, when he was a Lieutenant-Colonel. Percival then fought in the Russian Civil War as second-in-command of the 45th Royal Fusiliers in Arkhangelsk, capturing 400 Red Army soldiers along the Dvina River at Gorodok; he gained further combat experience while putting down the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence.

Percival was the chief-of-staff of General William Dobbie in British Malaya by the start of World War II, having predicted that Japan would attack Malaya through Thailand in the event of war; fixed defenses were built in Johore as a precaution. Percival was given command of the British forces in Malaya and Singapore in the campaign of December 1941-February 1942, and his British Commonwealth troops were discovered to have been poorly-armed and ill-trained. On 15 February 1942, he surrendered 80,000 British troops to the Imperial Japanese Army, the largest surrender in British history and a military disaster. Percival was imprisoned with Jonathan M. Wainwright in Manchuria, but on 2 September 1945 he had the joy of standing behind United States general Douglas MacArthur when he signed the Japanese surrender documents on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Percival retired in 1946, having had a negative reputation due to his surrender at Singapore; he was disliked by many, and he was not given a knighthood like most other Lieutenant-Generals were. Percival died in London in 1966.